Myrtle Gibson was “always” in G&K whether or not Howard Greene was. I would take her some more brooms to sell for the Lions and listen as she expressed her opinions about everything happening, or not happening. I really enjoyed those sessions with her, much as I now enjoy the ones with the other geezers at McDonald’s of a Saturday morning. I learned a lot of local history from Myrtle, as I do from the “other geezers”—and no, most of it will not appear in these columns!

I also enjoy my weekly visits with her husband, Pete Gibson, who now lives in Benson Hall at White Oak. Pete owned a barber shop in Columbus and had quite a collection of tools adorning the walls back in the day.

Lion Fred Eaton, Jr., has now left us to begin his new life with our Lord. I met Fred and Barbara years ago in the wilderness of the Shuford acreage as we all celebrated its having been retained as a bird sanctuary. Fred was generous to a fault and a thoughtful man, endowed with a friendly disposition and a happy face; in short, the qualities of a good person. He entertained us with his pithy statements and witty remarks, always delivered with a grin.

McFarland sent me the obit for Ralph Nesslinger. I had no idea that he lived here in Columbus or that he was my age. Ralph was a son of Karl and Carla Nesslinger; she was our chief docent of the Polk County Historical Association Museum when I was its president. I wrote a tribute to her when she died and published it in the Association’s newsletter and also in my first book. When Carla could no longer hear well enough to use the telephone to schedule docents, she reluctantly gave that up. It was then that I recruited the late Louise Powell to replace her.

I recently worked a shift as a substitute docent at the PCHA Museum in Columbus. I had invited the “other Geezers” to visit me, and Larry Hodge actually came in. He promptly disappeared into our new Genealogy rooms and began poring over the books in there. Former PCHA President Anna Conner spearheaded the effort to establish the Genealogy department and her efforts are apparently bearing fruit. Fran has a lot of our genealogy recorded in her computer, and still has the source material. I will see about putting it in there.        

I came across my songbook from my Tryon School days while looking for something else . . . We sang most of those songs in Mrs. Walter Jones’s music classes. The variety is amazing to me now—there are patriotic songs, church songs, folk songs, Scotch and Irish songs, rounds, etc. There are also many of the songs of Stephen Foster. They have really singable tunes—even the great Jascha Heifetz recorded several arranged as violin virtuoso pieces. But the words! Too many have references to black slaves and their masters, in a dialect mostly unknown today. As Margaret Mitchell aptly titled her master work, it is all “Gone with the Wind” . . .

In looking over this before sending it in, I see that I have accomplished part of Mr. Vining’s recipe for success in the newspaper business: “mention as many people as possible, and spell their names right!” I am not the grim reaper as Karl Kachadorian suggests, but I am losing more than three or four friends a month now. I started writing tributes to them years ago when it was two or three a year. I once apologized to Jeff Byrd for sending so many in a row, and he advised me to “please continue,” so I have. I hope you will agree that “it is the right thing to do.”